Tulipofika stendi, kondakta alituonya kwamba breki za basi hazikuwa nzuri.

It breaks down as:

• tu- = we
• -li- = past tense
• -po- = a relative/time marker here meaning something like when or at the time that
• fika = arrive

So Tulipofika literally means when we arrived.

A very useful contrast is:

• Tulifika = we arrived
• Tulipofika = when we arrived

That small -po- changes the verb into a time clause.

Because the sentence needs a time relationship:

• Tulifika stendi = We arrived at the station/stand
• Tulipofika stendi, ... = When we arrived at the station/stand, ...

So -po- helps connect the first event to the second one. It tells you that the warning happened at the time of arrival.

Stendi is a loanword, and in this context it usually means a bus stand, station, or bus stop/terminal, depending on the situation.

So Tulipofika stendi means when we arrived at the bus stand/station.

Like many loanwords in Swahili, it may not change form much between singular and plural in everyday use.

Because Swahili does not have articles like a, an, and the.

So:

• kondakta can mean a conductor or the conductor
• basi can mean a bus or the bus

Context tells you which meaning is intended. In this sentence, English naturally uses the conductor and the bus, but Swahili does not need a separate word for that.

No. Kondakta means conductor: the person on a bus or minibus who handles passengers, fares, and announcements.

The driver would be dereva.

So in this sentence, it was the conductor—not the driver—who warned them.

It breaks down like this:

• a- = he/she
• -li- = past tense
• -tu- = us
• onya = warn

So alituonya means he/she warned us.

The dictionary form is kuonya = to warn.

It could also mean she.

In Swahili, a- is the subject marker for he/she in the singular human class. The language usually does not mark natural gender in the verb the way English does.

So alituonya can mean:

• he warned us
• she warned us

Context decides which one is meant.

Kwamba means that and introduces the content of the warning.

So:

• alituonya kwamba ... = he/she warned us that ...

It works a lot like English that in reported speech or reported information.

Sometimes kuwa can also introduce a clause meaning that, but kwamba is very common and very clear in sentences like this.

So here, kwamba is a very natural choice after alituonya.

As a learner, it is safest to understand:

• kwamba = a common clause introducer meaning that

Because breki is being treated as plural here: brakes.

In Swahili, the possessive connector has to agree with the noun being possessed, not with the second noun.

So:

• breki za basi = the bus’s brakes / the brakes of the bus

Here za is the agreement form used with this plural N-class noun.

If the noun were singular in a context requiring singular agreement, you would expect a different agreement form.

It means they were not good.

Breakdown:

• ha- = negative
• zi- = subject marker agreeing with breki as plural
• -ku- = past tense
• -wa = be

So hazikuwa = they were not.

Then:

• nzuri = good

So hazikuwa nzuri = they were not good.

In natural English here, that means the brakes were not in good condition or weren’t good.

Because nzuri is the agreement form used with class 9/10 nouns, and that form is the same in both singular and plural.

So with many nouns in this class, you will see:

• singular: nzuri
• plural: nzuri

The verb agreement changes more obviously here (haikuwa vs hazikuwa), but the adjective stays nzuri.

Yes, and the meaning would be similar.

• hazikuwa nzuri = they were not good
• zilikuwa mbaya = they were bad

The version in your sentence is a little softer or less direct, much like English often says not good instead of bad.

Yes, that is natural.

With fika (arrive), Swahili often allows the place directly:

• Tulipofika stendi = when we arrived at the stand/station

You can also hear:

• Tulipofika kwenye stendi

That is also correct, but the shorter version is very common.

So this is not missing a word; it is just normal Swahili structure.